Friday, February 23, 2007

Another Good Reason Not to Visit the Monastery

Daniel Petru Corogeanu, a former hieromonk at Holy Trinity Monastery in Romania, killed a 23-year-old nun in the process of exorcism. The nun, Maricica Irina Cornici, believed she heard Satan speaking to her.

Cornici, 23, was tied up for several days without food or water and chained to a cross. She died of dehydration, exhaustion and suffocation.

At least Orthodox learn; some precautions will be set in place in the future:

Cornici's death stunned Romania and prompted the Orthodox Church to promise reforms, including psychological tests for those seeking to enter monasteries.

The church, which has benefited from a religious revival in recent years, condemned the ritual as "abominable" and banned Corogeanu from the priesthood and excommunicated the four nuns [who also performed exorcisms - BJ] from the church.

Not surprisingly:

Church officials noted he had dropped out halfway from the church's religion school. Despite leaving the program, he was anointed as a priest because of a shortage of priests to serve in new convents and monasteries.

3 Comments:

Wow. I could be wrong, but exorcisms in Orthodoxy are not for everyone to do. Not even every priest. There might be an exorcism service in the Great Book of Needs, but, as far as I know such things are handled by experienced elders. The way in which this exorcism was done shows the exorcist had no business doing what he was doing.

One can, of course, still visit a monastery. However, this shows how necessary discernment is. God grant the poor woman rest with the saints and forgiveness of sins.

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Disclaimer

This blog in no way represents the views and opinions of the Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate, nor of any other church. It is the blog of a lone, pathetic, and sinful Orthodox Christian deeply appreciative of the Church's Western patrimony.